Smiling In Pictures?

I deliberately avoid smiling in pictures as I hate those lines around your mouth you get when you smile. They make me look like one of those spooky ventriloquists dummies - you know the sory with a monacle!

Well I try to avoid getting my picture taken. I just don't like having it done. I know sometimes I have to (like when I was in my brother's wedding) but that doesn't mean I have to like it. I will smile but it's under duress. Of course it didn't help that I had a very bad over bite as a child and so I often hid my mouth when I laughed or smiled. So now it's hard to not do that.

I do not smile that often either and my pictures are often without smiles. The ony time when it could appear I am smiling in a picture is if I am acting goofy or doing something strange. Otherwise I am straight faced and some may think I look grumpy or unhappy but smiling is just not something I think of doing.

Smile if you feel like it, as they say, because its worse having a photo of you with a fake smile, than one with you not smiling.

I don't particularly like to have my picture taken, and I also rarely smile. Whenever I do, I simply look ridiculous and somehow drunk. And for those who may wonder, no my avatar is not a picture of me!

I too just don't smile at the time of taking the pictures. Till date i donot understand what is the logic behind this smiling at the time of taking the pic. The pic must be as you are. then what is the need of overshowing in the pic??

I don't smile much for cameras either. I don't really like having my picture taken at all. When I smile I have this kinda smirk that my husband likes to tease me about.

I don't like big smiles showing my teeth. Every time I have had to get a badge I try to do a regular smile and everyone asks for a big smile like I'm getting my 2nd grade class pictures done. I have great teeth - it's not that, I just think big smiles are cheesy unless you mean them, like when you are laughing with a friend.

I always have to remind myself to smile when someone is taking a picture. I'm just not much of a smiler unless something has amused me. I've always been that way. I have a picture of my sister pulling the sides of my mouth up to make me look like I'm smiling. I think I was 16 at the time. Don't you just hate the fake smiles in pictures, though? When you look back on those pictures years later you can tell the person was faking it.

I don't like to have my photograph taken full stop! In nearly 90% of photos ever taken of me I have my mouth open. *shrugs* I really don't know how it happens, it just does. I don't mind smiling in photos when I do have them taken, and then I end up with an idiotic photo of myself. Maybe I should take your lead and just stop smiling!

I don't really smile in pictures, as in a wide big smile. I smile a little though, just because i dont want to spare my ears to people asking me to smile. Why do we have to smile in pictures anyway? To tell other people who later look at our pictures that we're happy? Well, i could be seen (sort of) smiling in most of my pictures, but most of my life i have not been happy. So what's that about anyway.

i realy dont like to smile in pictures dosent look naturall allways comes across as being forced

I am the same way. Although I try to smile a little it doesn't look like a smile on pictures though. I don't really like smiling because I don't like my laugh lines. Anyway, on my avatar now I'm smiling and a lot of people like seeing me with that smile rather than without. I have another friend who won't smile at pictures. Maybe we feel silly smiling for the camera.

I don't like smiling for pictures, but that is because I hate my smile. I smile with my kids, but adults usually make me grumpy. I have known people who just don't smile, and I get the feeling I'm turning into one of them...happy on the inside, but blah on the outside.

Oh, you have hit on a major pet peeve of mine. I'm not an unhappy person. I smile plenty. But I smile because something is funny or because I'm feeling particularly happy or because I'm enjoying myself, NOT because someone tells me to. A smile is something that happens to you, in reaction to something, not something to be done on demand. The difference is obvious, and if I choose to not be phony, it should be my decision because I'm the one who has to live with the fact that if I fake it and it looks awful, there is a permanent record that anyone can look at and say "boy, does she look stupid." I think involuntary photos are violating anyway. Don't violate me and then tell me how I must cooperate to suit your preferences as to how it will be done. Thanks for the opportunity to get that off my chest. :)

You know what, sometimes smilling will make you feel better. Putting a smile on your face might put smiles on others. You should consider it.

It depends when.. Most of time I smile, because im a happy person in general.. But if its a serious photo, like to my id card I try to look serious too.. But if it's an ordinary photo I just smile because, well i'm happy :)

well there is no law but i smile except in sports pictures cause you want to look serious in those

I smile a LOT. I can't take a photo where I'm not smiling because I think I look ridiculous and devoid of emotion. However, my boyfriend does not like to smile at photos. He'd prefer to make a ridiculous face rather than look into the lens and smile. Not even a friendly look, he'd opt for a boring, candid shot. I read your reply to someone's comment that you don't like the lines around the mouth that are made when one smiles? Maybe you can try to smile like Mona Lisa, very minimal, but a smile nonetheless. Perhaps on some level you are just shy.